Inspiration Needed!!

Been a while since I was on here browsing and in the meantime I signed up to a creative writing course. Does anybody have any positive experiences of these courses?

I have an assignment due in next week but despite having lots of notes ready, I think the cursed writer's block has hit me and I'm intimidated by the blank page.

I have 500 words to play with, so it's a mini-story; where the central character is a child and written from the child’s narrative point of view (using ‘I’), and in the past tense. Paying attention to the kind of language a child might use; and to the observations particular to a child. The setting: a busy city street, where something has just happened, before the story actually begins. I need to incorporate some dialogue.

I thought I would relish the creative challenge but I'm so out of practise and just froze. Any tips for getting started?

i know this might be a bit of a pain with it being an upcomming deadline, but if you can, try write an A4 page on what the story is about in as mmuch detail as you can, when you have done this, you have basically written the story all you need to do is get the relevent parts and fill them out with discription and dialogue

Alright. Don't worry about writers block - I have it at the moment but I am slowly conquering it.
"I" - it's called first person.
Don't be intimidated. Say to yourself 'At 7:30 I'm going to sit down for half an hour and write my story'. And stick to your promise.
At 7:30 sit down and get out your page and think. You have to have a pencil in your hand to think. Think about the setting - what's something innovative that just happened? Suspense is a good technique to start out with, or dialogue. But remember to have a good mix of dialogue and description, and make your dialogue flowing - not just there to fill a space.

500 words isn't that much - remember it's easier to cut down than to try and flesh out your writing. Before you start, map out a small sequence of events in your head. You can write it down to help you. And a main idea.

I hope this helps! And don't beat yourself up - you are already well on your way by taking the innitiative to enrol in a course. Well done and good luck!

Any story needs a character and a challenge. Your character is partially defined by the assignment, but fleshing him or her out is the core challenge of te assignment.

The challenge is what will make it a story. What can you come up with to challenge the character? A lost toy? An irrational fear? Lost track of Mommy? Once you have a situation for the child to face, you can put your story in motion.

Forget writers block. It's an illusion. Dive into the work, and revise later.

Thanks for the advice guys. I found some inspiration out of a news story that I had read about earlier in the day and surprised myself with the unorthodox angle I created. I'm always fearful about putting my work out there for public scrutiny as I know it's not of a particularly high standard. But in the interests of improvement, here's what I have written so far:

I'm always fearful about putting my work out there for public scrutiny as I know it's not of a particularly high standard​

It's a big moment releasing your work to the mercy of other people's opinions, especially as it's almost impossible for someone to treasure your work as much as you do, it can be a very sensitive experiance, but like you said it is for the sake of growing. I'm glad you were able to find some inspiration!